Desktop Resolution Stumper

Hi all. Been trying to fix a problem for about 2 days now, bugging the heck out of me. My resolution is defaulting to 640x480 each time I log off or on. Interestingly enough, the 'outside of windows' view is 1280x720, it only shrinks to default when re-entering OS environment.

I've been messing around with every manner of things, so I can't isolate it to a specific action. Doing selective start-up with everything off, it still happens. If I create a new admin account, the same thing happens there.

I have researching just about everything I can think of, and it's driving me nuts. I was messing around with windows firewall, and dug deep into services, permissions, etc... and have a strong feeling it is related to this. As well, I made the dumb mistake of activating a Homegroup, not that I need to connect my computers at this time. So, now I think I am somehow caught in a very strange loop of glitches, and I can't get out.

The two things that I think may be trapping me in the no save zone (all other settings are saved, theme, icons, etc... just res defaulting.)
1. Some security conflict, even though I am member of admin, authentic, etc... I have not gone so far as to add myself to ntusers, as it shouldn't be that drastic a fix...
2. There is a known Windows 7 conflict with themes, where if a second program is entered into OS (CCC), and the native resolution is the same as the main resolution, this 'glitch' occurs.

I've located reg entries for all desktop settings, especially default, and manually edited the values, returning them to max, when I check them after relogging, they are either changed back, or a new sub-key is created... (HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video: SubKeys inside 0000 contain screen resolution settings.)

I have changed Cat drivers 3 times, examined every process and permissions, awful process... I have reset all default firewall rules, and executed command line system permission reset to defaults. So any changes I made (This started 2 days ago) should have been nullified. I have sys restored to times prior to this issue starting up, no joy, problem still exists. I've run every troubleshooter I can think of, tried tweaks, 3rd party tools, all have been defeated.

Any ideas you have to solve this problem would be immeasurably grateful.

Basic System Info:
Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz

Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Gaming graphics 3802 MB Total available graphics memory
Primary hard disk 379GB Free (577GB Total)
Windows 7 Home Premium

System
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Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Model G73Jh
Total amount of system memory 6.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4

Storage
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Total size of hard disk(s) 577 GB
Disk partition (C 379 GB Free (577 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD

Graphics
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Display adapter type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Total available graphics memory 3802 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 2778 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.880.3.0
Primary monitor resolution 1600x900
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
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Network Adapter Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6250 AGN

 

Do you ever get a message in the taskbar saying, "the driver stopped responding.." regarding vga driver?

You're going to hate me for asking this but: did you uninstall cat drivers, then use Driver Sweeper in safe mode to eliminate all leftover files?

One thing about my G73JH, when I first install VGA drivers, I have to use the original driver cd that came with the laptop. Its the only driver installation that works every time without any weird issues. After that you can update to the latest (11.7), but the first install has to be an Asus driver.

I'm sure at this point you are really hoping its a driver issue, because a GPU hardware failure would suck

 

Yeah, fully uninstalled. Re-installing the drivers was an attempt to solve the problem. I was using a much older ver of cat, and never updated, because they worked fine. It was only in an attempt to clear up this issue that I updated. Even tried different installs, with/without cat center running, as it is interacting with the desktop..

I am almost certain there is a Windows setting somewhere that's bugged out. When I just re-started, I went to my display properties, and when I clicked detect, it stated another display was detected...

I found something else strange in my searching.. As I was messing around in homegroup, I had left, restarted, left again, restarted, 3x in total. Well, when I was doing some deep searching of permissions, turns out I was getting a new account myself each time. (i.e. Dave, Dave1, Davew), with all associate directories underneath. Even though I had left the homegroups, apparently since there were still default folders shared, they still existed with my computer and account as a member.

I disabled sharing of the folder, and the complete directories of the ghost accounts disappeared at that point. Now in object properties of folders, I can see some of my folders are still mis-named by system (my windows folder is still referred to as 'windows2' by the system. I also now see unidentified users (my last 2 share accounts recently disabled) appearing in folder security with permissions...

Yeah, I would say it's a windows issue for sure, not a hardware problem. It's been 10 yrs since I studied and practiced system admin seriously, so am unsure of how to reset proper folder paths and remove the defunct accounts/objects. Stupid Home edition not having group policy editor, makes this very frustrating. No master place to examine computer objects...

My best guess is that windows is getting lost as it logs out, between misnamed settings, etc... and just ends up going back to system settings..

Hope someone out there who knows file structure and permissions might have an idea... Challenging, but frustrating problem.

 

Just saw this as example of what's happening:

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
DAVEZ-PC <00> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
DAVEZ-PC <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

I still have 3 workgroups running, and my computer is there twice... I'm tempted to rename, but am afraid I may actually exacerbate the problem.. still researching...

 

Trojan or rootkit? I hate to think what would happen if a virus got a hold of my admin privileges. Try running a malwarebytes scan in safe mode.

 

Dis you try the built in Windows Restore tool to go back a few days before this happened?

Also what happens if you boot into windows safe mode using the f8 key?

 

Mentioned above, Restored to a point well before the problem began, yet the problem remains. No difference when in safe mode, just normal. Trhoughout, the performance remains fine, just not saving upon exit. Working on backing up everything now, likely will have to restore to factory, go from there. Still annoying I can't figure it out...

 

now is the perfect opportunity for a repaste if you need one. And an SSD upgrade

 

So true, shame the econ is so bad, limits options, have to make the best of what I have atm. Had this box since Oct 10, gpu temps have never gone up more than 5' from initial burnins, must have gotten a little lucky.

In the end, this may all be for nothing, as I've been getting USB_Bugcode bsod, checkcode 00fe, 1st par 5 (physical port problem). Will likely have to RMA the whole thing in the end. Actually had rma set up, but found parking fix for freezing issue, and have had little to no problems since, until 3 days ago that is...